Ed's Blog

The credit for new and trade up homebuyers is scheduled to sunset soon, unless extended by Congress.

In order to take advantage of tax credits of up to $8,000, you must be in contact by April 30, 2010 and close by June 30, 2010.

Don't miss your chance to have Uncle Sam help you buy a home in San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, or wherever in California or any other state for that matter. Or how about Weed, California? I love that name!

Get yourself prequalified, preapproved, and ready to close escrow. Contact us now to get yourself ready to get some help from your favorite uncle-Uncle Sam.

The past week or two there has been a lot of discussion about mortgage interest rates climbing due to several pressures. Especially in light of the 1/8% to 1/4% recent bump in mortgage rates here are some of the factors being mentioned:

1) The Fed has announced it will no longer be buying Mortgage Backed Securities from Fannie and Freddie.

2) The recovery is underway! Or so they say.

3) Inflation must be on the horizon with all the money that has been pumped into the economy

4) China and Japan, the biggest buyers of our debt, are or will be scaling back on purchasing more of our debt.

5) Our soaring deficits will cause crowding out of private borrowing by government borrowing, inflation, or both, thus driving up rates.

Now that's quite a list! And it’s just a beginning.

Whether any or all of these are true, I do know this: Rates on home loans have been at historic lows for so long that sooner or later they're bound to go up.

So, if you've been thinking of refinancing, or buying a home at today's low rates, what are you waiting for?

Contact us and we will get you prequalified, preapproved, and locked in for a low interest rate mortgage on San Francisco, San Mateo, Marin, Oakland, San Jose, Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Diego, or wherever in California, homes or investment properties.

Don't miss out on this Nordstrom's sale on money!

When I read a few days ago that Bank of America was going to reduce the principal balance on up to 45,000 home loans you could have knocked me over with a feather!

What a novel concept! Help keep homeowners motivated to stay in their homes and paying their mortgages when they are so far underwater that they can't even see the light above. And they see their neighbors walking away from their mortgages right and left.

This idea was floated at least a couple of years ago when it actually could have done much more good for the economy. But there was great handwringing over moral hazard and other dairy I say “quaint” notions that used to be operative. But these have been tossed out the window by a steady stream of bad news and despair for homeowners who otherwise would most likely hang in there and “do the right thing.”

After helping create the bubble by lending with reckless abandon, foreclosing in massive numbers, and telling homeowners who wanted workouts to pound salt, some lender was bound to think, “There has to be a better way out of this.”

Congratulations to BofA. I hope their program works and that other lenders follow suit.

We need all the help we can get to get this housing market mess straightened out. Especially in hard-hit states like California, Arizona, Nevada, Florida, and others.